Class 7 Civics Chapter 6 Understanding Media Extra Questions and Answers

Class 7 Civics Chapter 6 Understanding Media extra questions and answers available here. Solving class 7 extra questions help students to revise the Chapter most competently. We prepared these questions as per the latest NCERT book and CBSE syllabus. Practicing these extra questions before the exam will ensure excellent marks in the exam.

Understanding Media Class 7 Civics Extra Questions and Answers

Very Short Extra Questions and Answers

1: Define media.

Answer: All forms of communication like radio, television, newspaper, and internet are referred as media.

2: Give examples of print media.

Answer: Newspapers and magazines

3: Give examples of mass media.

Answer: TV, radio, newspaper

4: Give examples of electronic media.

Answer: TV, radio, world wide web( internet).

5: How modernisation of media serves useful for us?

Answer: It helps media to reach more and more people

6: Why advertisements are keep on repeating in cricket matches flashing on television?

Answer: In the hope that we will purchase what is advertised

7: How people opposes against government action or plan?

Answer: By organizing a public protest, starting a signature campaign, asking the government to rethink its program etc.

8: How the cost of advertising on a news channel is decided?

Answer: It varies from Rs 500 to 8000 per 10 seconds depending on the popularity of channel.

9: An independent media means government should control and influence its coverage of news. True / False

Answer: False

10: What do you mean by term independent media?

Answer: It means no one should tell media what should be included and what should not be included in their news story.

11: On television only those programmes are flashed that can attract lot of viewers. True / False

Answer: True

12: What media is non- independent?

Answer: because of government control, their financial need

13: Which news will media flash : 

Annual day celebration in a school or annual day celebration in a school where chief guest is a famous politician

Answer: annual day celebration in a school where chief guest is a famous politician

14: Name the state where khabar lahriya newspaper is running?

Answer: Uttar Pradesh

15: The media decides what to focus on and in this way they sets agenda. True/False

Answer: True

16. How do you think television influences us?

Answer: It shapes our views of the world, our beliefs, attitudes and values.

17. Why do you think newspapers are called print media?

Answer: Newspapers are called print media because they are in printed form.

18. Give examples of local media.

Answer: Community Radio, Documentary Films, Local newspaper like ‘Khabar Lahriya’

19. What is broadcast?

Answer: Broadcast is used to refer to a TV or radio programme that is widely transmitted.

20. What is censorship?

Answer: This refers to the powers that government has to disallow media from publishing or showing certain stories.

21. Why we need to analyse the news?

Answer: The ‘factual information’ that a news report provides is often not complete and can be one-sided. We, therefore, need to analyse the news.

22. Mention one way in which mass media earns money.

Answer: One way in which the mass media earns money is by advertising different things like cars, chocolates, clothes, mobile phones, etc.

Short Extra Questions and Answers

1. Why are some advertisements shown repeatedly on the television screen?

Answer: Advertisements are repeated in the hope that people will go out and buy what is advertised.

2. What is a balanced report?

Answer:  A balanced report is one that discusses all points of view of a particular story and then leaves it to the readers to make up their minds.

3. What does media’s close relationship with business often mean?

Answer: Nowadays, media’s close relationship with business often means that a balanced report is difficult to come by.

4. How much does it cost to advertise on a news channel?

Answer: The cost to advertise on a news channel varies from Rs 500 to Rs 8,000 per 10 seconds depending on the popularity of the channel.

5. Why it is important to know both sides of the story?

Answer: It is important to know both sides of the story because it is on the basis of the information that the media provides that we take action as citizens.

6. How television is like a ‘window on the world’?

Answer: Television is like a ‘window on the world’ because a lot of our impressions about the world around us are formed by what we see on TV.

7. What do you found most useful about internet?

Answer: We always get the latest information on internet as we can read latest news and gain knowledge about the latest products within minutes of their release.

8. What do you mean by ‘public protest’?

Answer: When a large number of people come together and openly state their opposition to some issue is termed as public protest. Organising a rally, starting a signature campaign, blocking roads etc. are some of the ways in which this is done.

9. What is an independent media?

Answer: An independent media means that no one should control and influence its coverage of news. No one should tell the media what can be included and what should not be included in a news story.

10. What is mass media?

Answer: TV, radio and newspapers are a form of media that reaches millions of people, or the masses, across the country and the world and, thus, they are called mass media.

11. Why media is not interested in covering small issues that involve ordinary people and their daily lives?

Answer: Media is not interested in covering small issues that involve ordinary people and their daily lives because these issues cannot attract lot of reader or viewer and hence may affect their business.

12. How people express their dissatisfaction to any of the government’s action or plan?

Answer: Some of the ways in which they can do this is by writing letters to the concerned minister, organising a public protest, starting a signature campaign, asking the government to rethink its programme, etc.

13. “Television gives us a partial view of the world”. Comment

Answer: We need to realise that television gives us a partial view of the world. While we enjoy our favourite programmes, we should always be aware of the large exciting world beyond our TV screens. There is so much happening out there that TV ignores.

14. Why is it important to have independent media?

Answer: In order to write balanced reports, media need to be independent. Moreover, it is on the basis of the information that the media provides that we take action as citizens, so it is important that this information is reliable and not biased.

15. Why media is no longer considered independent?

Answer:  Media continual need for money and its links to advertising means that it becomes difficult for media to be reporting against people who give them advertisements. Media is, thus, no longer considered independent because of its close links to business.

16. What do the word media mean?

Answer:  Media is the plural form of the word ‘medium’ and it describes the various ways through which we communicate in society. Because media refers to all means of communication, everything ranging from a phone call to the evening news on TV can be called media.

Long Extra Questions and Answers

1. Why do media sometimes focus on only one side of the story?

Answer: Media sometimes focus on only one side of the story because:

  • Media’s continual need for money and its links to advertising means that it becomes difficult for media to be reporting against people who give them advertisements.
  • They believe this makes the story interesting.
  • They often do this to increase public support for an issue.

2. How has television brought the world closer to us?

Answer: Television has enabled us to think of ourselves as members of a larger global world. Television images travel huge distances through satellites and cables. This allows us to view news and entertainment channels from other parts of the world. Most of the cartoons that we see on television are mostly from Japan or the United States. We can now be sitting in Chennai or Jammu and can see images of a storm that has hit the coast of Florida in the United States. Television has brought the world closer to us.

3. How media and money are interrelated?

Answer: The different technologies that mass media use are expensive. In a news studio, it is not only the newsreader who needs to be paid but also a number of other people who help put the broadcast together. The technologies that mass media use keep changing and so a lot of money is spent on getting the latest technology. Due to these costs, the mass media needs a great deal of money to do its work. Thus, mass media is constantly thinking of ways to make money.

4. “Most television channels and newspapers are part of big business houses”. Explain why?

Answer: In a news studio, it is not only the newsreader who needs to be paid but also a number of other people who help put the broadcast together. This includes those who look after the cameras and lights. Also, as you read earlier the technologies that mass media use keep changing and so a lot of money is spent on getting the latest technology. Due to these costs, the mass media needs a great deal of money to do its work. As a result, most television channels and newspapers are part of big business houses.

5. In what ways does the media play an important role in a democracy?

Answer: Role of media in a democracy are:

  • In a democracy, the media plays a very important role in providing news and discussing events taking place in the country and the world. It is on the basis of this information that citizens can, for example, learn how government works.
  • It also criticizes the unpopular policies and programme of the government.
  • It forms the public opinion.
  • It raises issues and problem related to common people.
  • It also acts as reminder for the government about their promises.

6. How does technology affect the media industry?

Answer: Changing technology, or machines, and making technology more modern, help media to reach more people. It also improves the quality of sound and the images that we see. But technology does more than this. It also changes the ways in which we think about our lives. For example, today it is quite difficult for us to think of our lives without television. Television has enabled us to think of ourselves as members of a larger global world. Television images travel huge distances through satellites and cables. This allows us to view news and entertainment channels from other parts of the world.

7. You have read about the ways in which the media ‘sets the agenda’. What kind of effect does this have in a democracy? Provide two examples to support your point of view.

Answer: The media also plays an important role in deciding what stories to focus on, and therefore, decides on what is newsworthy. By focusing on particular issues, the media influences our thoughts, feelings and actions, and brings those issues to our attention.

Example:

(i) The media drew our attention to alarming levels of pesticides in cola drinks. They published reports that indicated the high level of pesticides and, thus, made us aware of the need to regularly monitor these colas according to international quality and safety standards.

(ii) The media drew our attention to suicide committed by farmers which leads to large scale movement and forced the government to look further on this issue.

8. How can we say that media is far from freedom?

Answer: However, the reality is that media is far from independent. This is mainly because of two reasons.

(i)  The first is the control that the government has on the media. When the government prevents either a news item, or scenes from a movie, or the lyrics of a song from being shared with the larger public, this is referred to as censorship. There have been periods in Indian history when the government censored the media.

(ii) Second, at times, it is in the interest of these businesses to focus on only one side of the story. Media’s continual need for money and its links to advertising means that it becomes difficult for media to be reporting against people who give them advertisements.

9. Explain the meaning and importance of local media with the help of an example.

Answer: Local media covers ‘small’ issues that involve ordinary people and their daily lives. Several local groups have come forward to start their own media. Several people use community radio to tell farmers about the prices of different crops and advise them on the use of seeds and fertilisers. Others make documentary films with fairly cheap and easily available video cameras on real-life conditions faced by different poor communities, and, at times, have even given the poor these video cameras to make films on their own lives.

Another example is a newspaper called Khabar Lahriya which is a fortnightly that is run by eight Dalit women in Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh. Written in the local language, Bundeli, this eight-page newspaper reports on Dalit issues and cases of violence against women and political corruption.